Writing an Adventure (And have fun doing it!)

Sir Elton · Aug 24, 2004

Hi There,

I thought I would give some insights on writing adventures. Since I'm going into the foray of writing one for the RPGA, I think it would be helpful to go through the steps.

Step 1: The Basic Idea
This is true when your writing a D&D adventure, d20 Modern serial, or Spycraft Serial. You start with the basic idea. For instance, my adventure for the RPGA has this as an idea: What if the forces behind Hellgate Keep only suffered a major drawback when their base was destroyed, and strike out against Sundabar for vengeance?
Idea 2: Why not make the adventure as a series of adventure sites and locations, and let the players and GM figure out the storyline?

Mindmapping the Idea

Before you outline your idea, it's best to mindmap it to get your ideas out. Mindmaps are visual aids that you create in order to give some images to your ideas. I'll post 2 mind maps that I made for my adventure idea. One related to idea 1, and the other related to idea 2.

Next:Putting your ideas together.

Piratecat · Aug 24, 2004

What software do you use for your mind maps?

Sir Elton · Aug 24, 2004

Piratecat said:
What software do you use for your mind maps?

I used Corel Photo Paint. You can use Adobe Photoshop or you can use Adobe Illustrator.

Kylearan · Aug 24, 2004

Thanks for this thread. I think it's a clever idea mindmapping your thoughts first. Instead of Gimp, PhotoShop, CorelPaint et al. I prefer a mindmapping software. http://freemind.sourceforge.net/ host a free, java-based program that seems to be ok for mindmapping adventures, I think. (I have just given it a try, not worked with it thoroughly, though.)

Kylearan, mapping his mind *ping* *done*

Halivar · Aug 24, 2004

A large notepad and a pen work good, too.

mhensley · Aug 24, 2004

Has anyone made a template for module writing for Word?

Sir Elton · Aug 24, 2004

Halivar said:
A large notepad and a pen work good, too.

Yes. Most definitely. Also, make sure you use colored markers.

Coreyartus · Aug 24, 2004

mhensley said:
Has anyone made a template for module writing for Word?

Each different Living campaign in RPGA has a different "guide" to writing mods. Both the Living Greyhawk and Living Kingdoms of Kalamar templates are in Word. They're attached. So are the Dungeon Magazine guidelines, but they are not in Word.

As far as "mind maps", I've done similar things in Word, using boxes and text, etc. to make flowcharts. Certainly helps one organize the story and make sense of things...

2cp

Coreyartus

Sir Elton · Aug 24, 2004

Coreyartus said:
Each different Living campaign in RPGA has a different "guide" to writing mods. Both the Living Greyhawk and Living Kingdoms of Kalamar templates are in Word. They're attached. So are the Dungeon Magazine guidelines, but they are not in Word.

Yes! This helps everyone, thank you very much for posting these.

Sir Elton · Aug 24, 2004

Part Ii: Organizing Your Ideas

Part 2:
The Basic Outline

After you have all your ideas on paper, it's time to logically organize them together in a coherent whole. Basically, you create an outline to show how your ideas are put together. This is taking the ideas on your mind map and arranging them in order.

After you've seen where they make sense, you can begin to work out an Encounter by Encounter outline. That will be handled in part three, but you get to see the preliminary outline I made up below. The following attachment is in Word Format. If you notice, its missing a title. No title needed for your basic outline as of yet; it's just there to help you arrange your ideas together.